The present invention pertains generally to a liquid separator for the separation of liquids from gases, and particularly to one of the type comprising an inlet orifice for a liquid laden with gas, a first outlet and a second outlet for the separated gas and liquid respectively, and an adjusting mechanism for varying the passage cross-section characteristic of the inlet orifice.
Such a liquid separator is known from DE 31 28 470 C2. This reference discloses a liquid separator that is provided in the form of a cyclone oil separator for use with the crankcase ventilation of internal combustion engines. It has an inlet orifice whose wall is formed by a spring and which is adjustable so as to permit the reduction of the associated passage cross-section. The adjusting mechanism, which forms a section of the wall, consists of a flexible material, for example, spring steel. In devices of this type, one seeks to provide for the uniformly good separation of gas from liquid, largely independent of the load state of the associated combustion engine. The spring stiffness of the flexible wall section in the disclosed device adjusts to the incoming volumetric flow in a way that continually provides the necessary vortex velocity and the centrifugal force necessary for gas-liquid separation. However, the working properties of liquid separators of this type are far less than optimal, as the potential adjusting power due to the fluid motion is minimal. Consequently, the flexible material of the adjusting mechanism must be designed to be correspondingly soft and unstable. This design compromise makes it very difficult to provide for the stable positioning of the adjusting mechanism.
There remains a need for the further development of a gas-liquid separator of the previously known type such that its adjusting mechanism has improved working properties and malfunctions of the adjusting mechanism are reliably avoided. There remains a need to further develop such a separator so that it achieves good separation efficiency with negligible pressure losses.